


Flash in the Night

by Lothiriel84



Category: The Mentalist
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-20
Updated: 2013-03-28
Packaged: 2017-12-05 21:58:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 2,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/728348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lothiriel84/pseuds/Lothiriel84
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of unrelated flashfics. Title borrowed from the namesake song by Secret Service. Written for the Paint It Red March 2013 Monthly Challenge - prompt: "All the words unspoken".</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Lies and Deceits

He could tell that Lisbon was worried about him. Six months had passed since Red John's apprehension, but he was still stuck in neutral. After spending a whole decade chasing a serial killer, he just couldn't adjust to some sort of normal life again.

To him, it was no big deal. It seemed to matter to Lisbon, however.

She'd started seeking his company more and more frequently of late. They shared cups of tea, ice creams, and Lisbon's couch when watching a movie. It wasn't until she asked him out one evening that alarm bells started ringing in his head.

"I'm seeing someone tonight," he all but blurted out. "A woman."

Though the clarification was somewhat unnecessary, it had Lisbon blinking like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Oh. Sounds great," she said as she tried – and failed – to summon a friendly smile.

After that night she didn't ask him out again. She started fishing for details instead.

So he told her about Ann. The way he felt when they were together, and how they seemed to get along well.

Lisbon managed a genuine smile this time, and wished him good luck with his charming friend. He wasn't sure he looked like a man in love, but she was probably too emotionally involved to notice it.

A few weeks later he announced that he and Ann were together. Lisbon put on a brave face and warmly congratulated him. Jane's heart sank when she wrapped him in a hug and placed a sisterly kiss on his cheek.

It didn't matter. He was well accustomed to feeling guilty anyway.

Then a couple of months went by, and Lisbon half-jokingly asked him if they were ever going to meet his girlfriend. His words lacked conviction when he reassured her that they would in time.

The same evening he found her crying in her office. She stubbornly refused to admit it, but he knew that she felt miserable because he didn't trust her to meet his – imaginary – partner.

"I'm sorry," he whispered as he tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

Lisbon stifled a sob and abruptly wished him goodnight.


	2. Dad

"I don't want to see him, period."

Lisbon's voice sank to a whisper. "He's your father, Jane."

"He didn't even come to my wife and daughter's funeral. As far as I'm concerned, he might as well be dead."

"I'm afraid he will be soon."

A frown creased his brow. "What do you mean? He still has to stand trial first."

She rested a gentle hand on his forearm. "I spoke with him last night. He has terminal cancer, and won't probably make it to the trial."

"Don't believe him, Lisbon. I'm pretty sure he's just trying to get away with murder, that's all."

"As if you haven't done the same on occasion."

He winced painfully at the mention of one of his bitter failures. "I'm still not going to talk to him."

"You'll regret it when he's dead. Trust someone who knows it."

That had him capitulating at long last. A couple of hours later he was sitting in an interrogation room, Alex Jane staring back at him across the small table.

"She's some woman, your friend. Just like Angela."

"Please, I know all of your tricks. What do you want from me?"

His father attempted a small smile. "I don't want anything _from_ you. Believe it or not, I've actually done something _for you_ for once."

"Really? And what that may be, killing some random stranger in a drunken brawl?"

"Sarcasm is totally beneath you, my son. That guy deserved what he got anyway."

"I think I'm done with this conversation."

"You don't want to know who that man actually was?"

Jane paused in the doorway. "Let me guess. One of your marks?"

"He was way too smart to be one of them."

"Very interesting story. A pity that I have to go now."

He walked away without looking back. Three weeks later they informed him of Alex Jane's decease.

Lisbon stood by his side throughout the memorial service, and later when his old carnie friends came to offer their condolences. He caught a brief glimpse of Danny Ruskin too, before his attention was swept away by a woman in black that was lying a bunch of asters onto the grave.

"Lorelei. What are you doing here?"

She ignored Lisbon's glare and smiled softy at him. "Your father paid off his debts in the end."

Jane blinked a couple of times as she handed him a sealed envelope and disappeared from his sight. Then he finally sunk to his knees, allowing tears to run freely down his face.


	3. Hazel Eyes

Jane shoots a man. Again. And her world collapses like a house of cards.

That night she falls in bed with a stranger. He smells of alcohol and sweat, and she keeps her eyes closed the whole time.

In the morning she doesn't even remember his face. When she visits Jane in jail she throws all the times he's betrayed her trust back in his face, then spits out how _alive_ she felt while sleeping with someone else.

He pales a bit and tells her he's done it for her sake, and it's Red John all right. She doesn't believe him, slaps him across the face and strides away.

A couple of days later he shows up at her door. She doesn't even want to know where he has found the money to bail himself out this time.

His eyes are filled with tears as he says he's sorry in between soft kisses. She tries to shove him away, only to kiss him back with a vengeance a few moments later.

They sink to the floor, and he keeps on whispering apologies while he washes away the memories of that night from her body. Later on he holds her as she cries herself to sleep, her head resting against his heart.

It's only after the trial that she resolves to take a pregnancy test. On her way home she stops at a chapel and silently prays that it's actually Jane's child.

He moves in with her as soon as she tells him about the baby. His supposed fatherhood remains an unspoken elephant in the room for the next few months.

She bursts into tears when a nurse eventually places a squirming baby girl in her arms. Her daughter has beautiful hazel eyes, and she closes her own waiting for Jane to walk away.

He doesn't. He takes the child instead, and holds her proudly against his chest.

It doesn't take her long to fall asleep within his loving embrace.


	4. Swansong

She smirked at the reflection staring back at her from the mirror. She was far from being a naïve girl, and falling in love with the man she was supposed to lure into her master's web had never really been an option.

In another life, they could have been friends. Even genuine lovers, maybe.

He had enjoyed their night together, that was true. Perhaps he even had some kind of feelings for her. However, she knew that Patrick Jane still belonged body and soul to his dead wife.

That was, until he eventually gave in to the unspoken feelings he shared with Teresa Lisbon. The lady cop was indeed his second chance at happiness, as Red John had guessed a long time ago.

Speaking of her master, she had a mission to accomplish. Only, it wasn't one of his missions this time.

It was for her sister. And for Patrick's wife and daughter too.

xxx

When they found her, it was already too late. She was lying in a pool of her own blood, her breath shallow and uneven.

It was well worth it anyway, for Red John was lying dead right beside her.

"I'm sorry," Jane said as he kneeled down beside her.

Her lips curled in one last smile before darkness finally took her.


	5. Like Tears from a Star

Lisbon wasn't even over the shock of discovering that she was pregnant, let alone figure out how to tell Jane, when she woke up to a searing pain in her lower belly.

She didn't cry as the doctor informed her that she'd miscarried. All she did was bow her head and stay silent.

The only silver lining to her current predicament was that Jane was too busy following a pointless lead on the Red John case to be aware of what had happened. At least he would be spared the pain of knowing he'd just lost another child.

That night she lay awake in her bed, curled up under the blankets while listening to the rain tapping against the windowpane. It felt like the sky was crying for her baby, and she was able to shed tears at long last.

She wondered if somewhere in heaven Charlotte was singing a lullaby to her little sibling that was never meant to be.


	6. Runaway

"Her name was Katherine Corrigan. She's survived by a daughter, Liz Corrigan."

She waited for whatever remark from Jane, but it never came. He just kept staring at the body, his brow furrowed and his mouth tightly shut.

"Jane, thoughts?"

"I can't work on this case."

With that he turned on his heels and walked away. It wasn't until a few hours later that she spotted him in the kitchenette as he was making himself a tea, and demanded an explanation.

"Victim's real name was Patricia O'Connell," he stated flatly. "And she had a son too."

Lisbon bit her lip when she noticed how his fingers were clasped around his favorite teacup.

"I'm sorry," she said softly, but Jane had already turned away and left.

She sighed and slowly went back to her office.


	7. Suspended Animation

He'd never expected to grow tired of what he did. And yet one morning he woke up determined that he wouldn't kill again, without any particular reason to it.

For a couple of months he debated whether he should send Patrick a message, let him know about such an unexpected resolve. In the end, he decided against it.

His drive for revenge was what had kept Patrick alive for all those years. He couldn't take it away from him, not when he still needed it so much.

He watched from a distance as his affectionate enemy kept on struggling to find him, with Agent Lisbon sticking stubbornly to his side. It was endearing to see how Patrick never ceased to keep Teresa at arm's length, despite being well aware that his feelings for her were entirely mutual.

As the years went by they both grew old. They'd allowed their last chance at happiness to slip right through their fingers, for fear that he might want to steal it away.

Every Sunday afternoon they would take a walk in the park, reminiscing about the past. He would sit on a bench and smile softly as they passed him by.


	8. Forget-me-not

It was Charlotte's birthday, and he'd bought a bunch of forget-me-nots for the occasion. As he walked to the graveside he was surprised to find someone else standing there.

"Danny," he murmured in quiet surprise. He hadn't heard from his former brother-in-law for years now; it was a relief to see that he was still alive, and out of jail too.

The other man acknowledged his presence with a nervous nod of his head, then a silence followed.

"I've heard that Red John has been apprehended," Danny Ruskin said at long last.

"That's been years ago."

"I know."

"What have you been doing all this time?"

"Trying to get by, as usual."

"Your sister wouldn't be happy about that, you know."

"Yeah. But she's no longer with us, is she?"

Jane leaned forward and placed the bouquet onto his daughter's grave. "It's time to move on, Danny."

"What about you?"

A soft smile curled his lips. "Next time I come here, I hope to bring my wife and child with me."

"Oh."

Neither of them spoke again as they stared at the two plain tombstones for a little while longer.


	9. The Shadow of the Past

Lisbon has never told him about the day she (almost) met him some thirty years ago. Her father had taken them all to the carnival, and she was eating cotton candy while her brothers were having another ride on the merry-go-round.

That was when she saw him – a forlorn boy huddled in a corner, his hand covering his cheek. She was already walking towards him when her mother called her back; Tommy had grazed his knee and wouldn't calm down until they went back home.

A week later her mother died, and her father took up to drinking. It didn't take her long to understand the exact reason why the boy at the carnival had been crying, for she was the one her father slapped when she stepped in to protect her little brothers.

There's no one to call her back now as she enters the dreary CBI attic and walks straight to his side. Patrick Jane has been putting on a brave face ever since he joined her team, but even his carefully constructed mask slips from time to time.

She sits down beside him on the makeshift bed and silently wraps an arm around his shoulders. He closes his eyes and allows her to comfort him, if only for a short while.


	10. I'm Coming Home

The creepy smile that hovers on Bertram's lips makes her blood curdle, but her hand never falters as she levels her gun at him.

"Drop that knife," she orders, her voice harsh and cold as a steel blade. When the CBI director only takes a step forward she empties her gun, and he's dead.

Jane is still trembling from shock as she tells him to go home. If they're lucky enough no one has seen him enter the basement, and she's determined to face the upcoming storm alone.

It takes her team almost twelve hours to clean up the mess, after that she's greeted as the hero who's eventually brought down the most cunning serial killer of the last couple of decades.

She forces her way through a crowd of journalists, her mind focused on one task only. Jane is nowhere to be found in the CBI headquarters, she hopes he's followed her advice and gone back to his old motel room.

Except that the room his dark and empty, and her heart sinks. Maybe he's driven off to his house in Malibu, and she prays that he's arrived safely there.

She's beyond tired when she steps inside her apartment, the last thing she expects to find there is Jane sleeping like a baby on her living room couch.

A warm smile creeps to her lips, then she wanders off in search of a blanket.


End file.
